"...[Arth's]
accomplishment is nothing short of a miracle. He did it with hard work, courage,
and a lot of luck."

--Film
Critic Jason Wiener, Jason Watches Movies.

"Topping
my list [at the Savannah Film Festival] is a documentary by artist, preservationist,
modern-day polymath Michael E. Arth….New Urban Cowboy follows its creator
as he faces down drug lords and a skeptical citizenry, resurrecting a dissolute
neighborhood in a Central Florida town and turning it into a jewel of New
Urbanism, the first triumph of what Arth calls ‘The New Pedestrianism.’...thought-provoking
and lucid....”

--Joel
Weickgenant, SavannahNow

“KNOWN
TO URBAN PLANNERS and designers the world over as the father of ‘New
Pedestrianism,’ Michael E. Arth decided to put his groundbreaking ideas
about compact, walking-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods to the ultimate test….”

Any
of you who are in the know when it comes to New Urbanism have probably already
heard of the New Urban Cowboy, aka Michael E. Arth. He's the mind
behind New Pedestrianism, a more extreme form of New Urbanism in which pedestrian
lanes instead of streets are the main connectors, with garages and car lanes
relegated to the backs of buildings. Arth is also an idealist, a visionary,
and an insanely hard worker-he's one of the (too few) idealists/visionaries
that have the practical know-how and gumption to see their dream through to
the end, to its absolute completion.... I'd advise anyone
who is overly skeptical of solutions to the problems facing our civilization
to see this movie, and to pay close attention. For that matter, anyone who
is overly skeptical of our capacity to work together, create positive, major
change, and to fulfill our dreams, ought to take a long look at what Michael
Arth has done. You just might be inspired.

"Michael
E. Arth's story reads like a movie script and wraps with the
requisite Hollywood happy ending. In fact, Arth hails from Hollywood
and his story is now a film called The New Urban Cowboy. The happy
ending belongs not just to Arth but to the entire city of DeLand."

This post has nothing to do with books or horses or the bookstore. It has to do with a documentary I saw last October at The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. It has stuck with me for so long and I swear, I probably think about it once a day. Very worth watching if you get the chance. The basic idea is so great, but the documentary is even more great. Truly Amazing, actually.

Michael E. Arth's idea is that eventually, in this country, we are going to have to figure out how to be a less car-centered society, as a whole, not just a few pockets of folks. An example of one of his main ideas is to turn neighborhoods around, literally. Instead of front yards facing roads and parked cars, they would face tree-lined pedestrian lanes. Kids, or anyone, could safely walk, skate, or ride their bike up and down these lanes. A village center would be within walking distance. In fact, everything is within walking distance. The roads for cars would be in the back, where the alleys used to be. It may sound simplistic, but it is an amazing documentary."